More airports likely on new aviation policy'

New Delhi: The national civil aviation policy, including the regional connectivity push, is expected to increase the number of functional airports in the country to 150-200 in the next few years, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said on November 25.

Speaking at aviation seminar "DISHA 2016" here, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation also said there is going to be a massive increase in airport capacity in the country with an expected investment of Rs 15,000-17,000 crore by the AAI in the upgradation and modernisation of its airdromes.

The seminar was organised by the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) arm of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here. At present there are 75 functional airports in the country.

"There are three most important elements of our national civil aviation policy. One, we have thrown open the sector and two, we are creating a regional aviation market. As a result of this, we may have 150-200 airports into our aviation network in the next few years," Sinha said.

The government had in June this year announced its civil aviation policy.

"We are massively expanding our ability to add airports and strengthen our airport infrastructure through our PPP mode policy for greenfield airports," he said, adding that AAI itself is expected to invest somewhere between Rs 15,000- 17,000 crore in their airports in the next few years.

"There is going to be a massive increase in airports capacity in the country," Sinha added.

Noting that the aviation sector in India is changing very very dramatically, Sinha said, "We have reached an inflection point now, which is largely because of the transformational policies of the present government."

"These transformational policies have resulted in the dramatic growth in aviation sector. We are growing over 20 per cent a year, which is extraordinary. No other aviation market in the world is growing in the double digit except India and China," the minister said.